Faculty Baden Presentations
The William Wilson Baden Faculty Presentation Series is supported by a fund established in 1986 by W. Wilson Baden (‘19) to honor his father William Wilson Baden, who was Professor of Modern Languages at Ursinus College from 1914 to 1924. "Boots" Baden taught Greek, Spanish, French, Italian and German, traveled extensively and was considered a master of apropos anecdotes. Students had this to say about Dr. Baden in the Ruby yearbook: "A profound scholar, a humane instructor and a 'good sport' are terms necessary to characterize this worthy member of our faculty."
The Baden Presentations are celebrations of faculty professional achievement, in which Ursinus faculty share their research and creative work for an audience of faculty across the disciplines, staff, and students. Baden Presentations are both rigorous and accessible, showing the audience why faculty do what they do as well as what they do. Baden Presentations take place beyond the lecture hall, and have recently occurred in a movie theatre and on a walking tour. The virtual presentations you'll find here showcase the best of Ursinus scholarship and creativity.
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History of the Incas and Indigenous Sovereignty: Two Cases in Colonial Peru, 1722-1758
Jose Eduardo Cornelio
When we think of Spanish domination in colonial Latin America, how do we imagine the situation of indigenous peoples? What images come to our minds about their social and economic status? What do we know about the political agendas or everyday agencies of indigenous communities from Mexico to the Andes, beyond some of the well-known armed uprisings such as the Tupac Amaru II rebellion?
In this lecture I will address two specific cases of colonial Peru during the first half of the 18th century. In both cases, lettered knowledge is the decisive strategy that allows these groups of educated indigenous people a certain margin for agencies grounded on the power of the written word. The first case is about the participation of the indigenous elite in an official fiesta honoring King Felipe V in the city of Lima, in 1722, which is described in a book written by the Creole intellectual Pedro de Peralta y Barnuevo (officially printed in 1723). The second one, about a group of anonymous indigenous and mestizo intellectuals who clandestinely printed a book (ca. 1754-58) and sent it to Pope Benedict XIV in Rome. In this book titled Planctus Indorum in America Peruntina (A Cry of the Indians of Peruvian America), these indigenous and mestizo lettered men asked the Pope to expel all Spaniards from the viceroyalties of Peru and Mexico, and also requested him to assume the government of these territories according to the laws of the divine government in Christendom.
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World Bank, World Peace? How International Organizations Affect Prospects for Democracy, Peace, and Reconciliation After Civil Wars
Johannes Karreth
Does globalization exacerbate political conflict, or can multilateral institutions successfully advance peace and reconciliation? This faculty Baden lecture presents evidence on the role of modern international politics for preventing civil wars, post-conflict peace, and democratic processes. The presentation draws on quantitative and qualitative data covering the post-World War II period, event data, and cases from Indonesia and Côte d'Ivoire.
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Fighting Climate Change on the Farm: Using Crop Selection to Optimize Soil Carbon Storage
Denise Finney
“Carbon farming” has gained momentum as a strategy to mitigate climate change by capturing and storing carbon in agricultural soils. Join Dr. Denise Finney for an inside look at research underway in her lab on the relationship between farming practices and climate change. She is currently investigating how choices farmers make about which crops to plant affect carbon storage in soil. This field day-style talk took place at Ursinus College's Whittaker Environmental Research Station in Dr. Finney's research fields.
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Biodiversity, Climate Change and Ecosystem Reliability
Cory Straub
With support from the Pearlstine Faculty Fellowship Fund, Dr. Cory Straub has spent two summers with Ursinus students at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Their research seeks to understand how predatory insects – and the agricultural pests they consume - will respond to climate change. Dr. Straub shares research results and pictures of his family and students enjoying summers in Sweden.
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Explicit Associations With Autism and Disability
Jennifer L. Stevenson
The entire month of April has been devoted to autism awareness for over 30 years; thus, it should be safe to assume the majority of the general public is aware of the autism spectrum. However, as autistic self-advocates have pointed out, awareness is not the same as acceptance. Despite widespread awareness, we have not reached an inclusive society for autistic individuals or for disabled individuals, in general. A current direction of my research investigates peoples’ attitudes toward the autism spectrum and disability. In this talk, I will present data examining explicit or conscious attitudes. Possible negative explicit associations with the autism spectrum and disability are concerning as they reflect ableist attitudes at a conscious and controllable level.
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Creating a Mobile Dance and Technology Installation: Body, Landscape, and Moving Digital Imagery
Jeanine McCain
How does a connection to our environment shape who we are as humans and how we move through the world? How can the integration of dance and technology serve to deepen an expression of the human experience and connection to our environment, rather than separate us from it? Associate Professor McCain will discuss her research collaborations that seek to answer these questions through the creation of dance films and the implementation of projection design technologies.
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No Pain, No Gain: Inflammation and Muscle Repair
April Carpenter
Skeletal muscle injury is extremely common, and few therapies exist to improve or speed repair. Dr. Carpenter studies inflammatory cell signaling in skeletal muscle regeneration following injury. She is particularly interested in understanding how wnt ligands produced by macrophages influence endothelial permeability, integrity and expansion. Because anti-inflammatory treatments are often used following muscle injury, she is also interested in how these therapies directly impact inflammation and muscle healing.
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A Curious Bridge Between Two Mathematical Disciplines
Christopher Sadowski
In this presentation, we explore two branches of mathematics, abstract algebra and number theory, and a curious bridge connecting the two fields. The talk will be broken up to answer the following questions:
-What exactly does a mathematician do when they do research?
-What is abstract algebra? What do algebraists study?
-What is number theory? In particular, what are integer partitions?
-How are these areas connected? What does this mean for both disciplines?
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Middle English "Tarantulas": A New Edition of The Destruction of Jerusalem
Kara McShane
In this Baden presentation, Kara McShane gives an overview of her forthcoming edition of the understudied Middle English Destruction of Jerusalem, a late medieval siege narrative, and explores how the poem expands contemporary understandings of religious and cultural contact, conflict, and exchange in medieval English literature. The talk includes an interactive introduction to editing medieval texts.
